Trade updates, plus something random
A bit about a potential Boone trade to the Twins in this Pioneer Press column. Don’t both clicking the link unless you don’t believe me, since this is the entirety of the item in blockquote, but if you do, it’s username: tkedwards@mailinator.com password: morris
The Seattle Mariners, by the way, might be willing to pay most of second baseman Bret Boone’s $9.25 million salary this year if the Twins would give up a marginal prospect in a trade.
This lets me weigh in on a topic that’s been percolating in the comments. I think if the choice is between paying Boone’s salary and gettting a prospect, or simply getting the other team to pick up the tab, the M’s ought to do the former. From a fan’s perspective, we know that the budget allegedly is zeroed out at the end of any given year. If they aren’t going to use the millions they save to improve the team next year, at least the team should get a guy with a chance to contribute.
On the Randy Winn trade front, a bit of news from Newday. The Yankees, looking for a centerfielder, sent two scouts to the M’s-A’s series to watch Randy Winn and Mark Kotsay, but they don’t feel like they have a fit with the M’s for Winn.
I’m not surprised there is no fit to be had with the Yankees. They don’t have much in the minor leagues to give up, and they’re tethered to most of their major league contracts.
Random Schadenfreude: I’m not sure I believe this or not, but that won’t prevent me from passing it on. It’s what every non-Yankee fan wants to believe is going on.
Comments
48 Responses to “Trade updates, plus something random”
Is Cano anything resembling a prospect? Do you think the Yankees might go for Winn+Boone for Cano? It gets them a CF and a 2B, and gets the M’s value in return. (If Cano is as good a player as his brief exposure to The Show demonstrates.)
I’m not sure I take that deal if I’m the Yankees, but then again, Steinbrenner’s been known to do dumb things when he’s desperate. (See also: Buhner, Jay.)
The Yankee system is thin, you gotta give ’em that. Cano may be the only guy with value.
I think Cano is having a decent rookie year, but I think he’s more Michael Morse than Chase Utley. I expect a fallback from Cano any moment now.
Cano 2005 MLB… .284/.311/.464 183 AB’s
Cano 2004 AA&AAA .283/.338/.457 508 AB’s
He’s doing exactly what he did last year, this year. I would expect major league pitchers to take advantage of his poor plate discipline in the 2nd half and we’re likely to see a bump downward in his numbers. Mind you, he’s not a bad prospect but I think his ceiling is Orlando Hudson.
maybe A-Rod and/or Jeter will become trade-bait soon, if they keep up the moronic slugfest in the locker room 😛
Prediction: A-Rod is wearing a new uniform next season, with the Yanks picking up half the tab to get him out.
Can anyone else see him in a Cubs uniform? Maybe Dodger Blue? Or perhaps (dare I say it) back in Seattle?
Re: 5
Was there a recent dust-up between ARod and DJer? If so, I missed the news of that.
Well, it didn’t get in any of the NYC or NJ based newspapers. Hard to believe George S. and Cashman have ALL the sportswriters muzzled about something this noteworthy.
A Red Sox fan (wit!) thinks that Duke Castiglione is up to tricks again. He’s the NY CBS news producer who confronted Randy Johnson on the street in NYC the day Johnson got his Yankee physical exam.
(the Red Sox connection: Duke is the son of Joe Castiglione, Red Sox radio “voice”)
The Winn-Backe offer followed by the story that Yankes do not feel like they have a fit with Seattle suggest that Bavasi wants a major-league-ready starter in return for Winn. At least Bavasi apparently recognizes the M’s most pressing need. The Yanks have the overrated Wang but appear dead set against trading him, Hughes is a nice prospect but years away, and the M’s have no need for Cano with Lopez ready.
Since the Yankees don’t have a major-league ready starter, I’d take Eric Duncan.
Anyone want Stanton or Quantrill?
Duncan has played much better recently, but as a corner infielder, Beltre and Sexson would block him for the foreseeable future, so he is probably not the M’s first choice.
Yeah, but we could flip him for something else, or even set-up a three-way deal.
He could play a corner OF slot. If he’s good, you make room.
Does anyone see any point in Pat Borders being our regular catcher at this juncture?
Oops, sorry, meant to post to the game thread. I am still sick of Borders, though.
The Yanks need Villone or Eddie. Too bad there’s nothing to offer in return. And no, we don’t need Stanton, we have a younger, cheaper version in Thornton.
I was just making fun of Adam Melhuse’ offensive prowess when he singled to right. But, if O-town is going to make a run this year, they could really use a solid backup catcher. Someone like Wiki Gonzalez, for instance, if they’d part with 1-2 of their vaunted prospects….
Looks like it’s going to have to be 3-way.
#35: A-Rod’s contract has a no-trade clause. Why would he waive it? He went to NY to improve his chances of getting a ring, and he doesn’t have one yet.
#18: Oops, #35 should be #5.
If the best you are going to get is marginal major leaguers or AAAA type arms I’d rather take flyers on unknown A types. You never know when one might turn out to be David Arias for Dave Hollins.
I think the twins would be willing to part with Luis Rivas for Boone, perhaps straight up if the M’s picked up the salary. He has underachieved, even compared to Boone,and is arbitration eligible but only 25, i believe . Boone is a stable second baseman, compared to Abernathy and Nick Punto and I personally would like the trade both ways.
How about Randy Winn for Joe Torre, since he has a clause that specifies he’s only to be traded for managers? I might even start smiling again if that ever happened.
Boone for Luis Rivas? Ugh, no way in hell.
Rivas is absolutely worthless — I would MUCH rather have Jose Lopez going forward. The M’s have no use for Rivas. Indeed, no MLB club has a use for Rivas.
#22: Torre is great at managing already great teams. When the level of talent thins out, well, you saw what happened against the Red Sox last fall.
What about Felix for Adam Dunn?
#24
Yeah, you’re right, with this group of players he’d look pretty bad all of a sudden. We need some kind of damn miracle worker. I was joking anyway……
Or at least with this starting staff, I’m so ready for a complete starting rotation makeover.
#23- i agree wholeheartedly about Rivas and his overall level of ineptitude. However, a change of scenery is all some guys need. Just a thought
Two Willie Bloomquists (one that isn’t even as versatile) on one bench? I’ll pass, thanks anyway.
#28 — While, in principle, I agree with you that sometimes a change of scenery can make a difference, I do not think it would help Rivas’ career. New scenery will not mask Rivas’ lack of talent.
Anyone heard much else about the rumors that the Reds are shopping Adam Dunn? He’s a perfect fit for the M’s. Young, would be under team control for another few years, and is the power hitting outfielder the M’s desperately need. Is there much of a package the M’s could put together that would even remotely interest the Reds?
Although it appears M’s are lacking trade bait in fact they have desirable players Relief pitchers and Winn. Since most the division leaders and those in close contention need to strengthen their bullpens M’s GM has an opportunity to extract high AAA talent in return (remember who M’s gave for Slocumb). Some team will give even more just to prevent another team from getting stronger. This applies mostly to Eddie as he is the prize chip.
Rivas is superior to Bloomquist in terms of fielding and baserunning…
However, with the load of middle infield talent brewing in our system, not to mention King Lopez, it just doesn’t seem logical to trade for a 2B/SS.
I’m really hoping we can somehow get a young RP over here via trade. I don’t know how high the dodgers organization is on Brazoban, but with Gagne DONE would they be interested in Guardado? I would pull the trigger immediately if we had a chance to trade Eddie straight up for a guy like Yhency. Or does Eddie carry even more trade value than this?
I want to move Boone, Winn, Moyer, Thornton, Franklin, Sele, Nelson, Spiezio, Villone, Hasagawa and Hansen. You can have them all for a solid #1 starter. M’s can bring up the rest of the replacements from AAA and take their chances.
You’re not getting a #1 starter for any of them.
None of them are as good as RJ was, and we got someone who was, at best, inconsistent as a #1 in trade (Freddy). This is a case where quantity does not make up for quality- a load of older mediocre players isn’t as good as one HOF talent.
The M’s best trade prospects are likely Winn and Guardado (one of whom you left off)- and unless we involve some prospects in the deal (like tossing in a SS like Jones, maybe someone like Choo or Doyle), the prospect we get back isn’t likely to be a prime one.
Anything that would interest the Pirates in parting with Perez?
Did someone mention winn and cf in the same breath.haha nice joke and who would give you a wooden nickle for wiki?
They have no use for a guy in the final year of his contract, they’re not buyers.
Hell i’d rather have mike gonzalez anyways.
So anything else we have to interest them?
This is one fucked up organization — according to Finnigan’s latest, Bavasi has to ask permission of Yamauchi in Japan in order to trade Hasegawa. Of course no such rules apply to trading or releasing underperforming AMERICAN players, only underperforming Japanese players.
And this, from the same article — the M’s are supposedly having a hard time figuring out who from their 7 man bullpen goes when Rafael Soriano comes back. How about all of them except Guardado and Mateo? (unless we can get prospects for Guardado). Heck with Mateo arb. eligible for the first time this winter I’d trade him too if I could get a decent prospect. He’s about to triple his salary in ’06.
The scary thing is this article claims that with Seattle’s season now officially in the toilet we’ve now become one of the teams that can afford to keep Matt Thornton on the roster until he’s able to pitch like a major league pitcher.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/mariners/2002354101_mariside01.html
There’s almost no chance that another team would want Hasegawa. He’s more or less as valuable as any AAA relief pitcher at this stage, so what does it matter if Bavasi needs to ask Yamauchi’s permission? Plus, Finnegan said it, so you know it must be wrong.
I was really pulling for Thornton at the beginning of the season, but… he’ll be 29 in a couple of months, and since he hasn’t quite figured it out yet, there’s not a lot of chance that he will. No chance he’s in the majors in two years.
Even if Mateo triples his salary to ~$1 million, he’s still worth it.
It would definitely be good to see some roster moves this month. It always seems, though, that the M’s do much less trading than we as fans would like to see. I’d love to see about six members of the current roster moved in trades before the deadline, but I’d guess that we’ll see at most two moved and then another two (likely a Sele and Nelson) moved during the waiver transaction period. Prepare to be disappointed with the management’s ability to move the veterans for prospects.
I don’t know how much stock you’d put in that Times article, since it says Nelson is having a good season. It also says they’ve had “several interesting offers” on Hasegawa. How interesting would it have to be?
An “interesting” trade proposal could be 2 sacks of Idaho potatoes, a $5 McDonald’s gift certificate, and a 1984 Honda Civic. Just because it is interesting doesn’t mean it’s something we’d want.
What size sack?
That sounds like a fair deal for Shiggy.
i think the permission thing re: japanese ownership is because the mariners derive a large portion of their income from japanese people following the mariners, and also because shiggy is a celebrity in japan. he’s a bestselling author, some kind of self-help/personal success/pre-beard anthony robbins guy.
ihmo we’re not playing the tokyo giants so the mariners will never truly be committed to winning by acquisition, having that basic committment to winning it all for the historical reason. i just don’t see it. maybe if we get lucky etc etc but the plan will never be nyy-style buy-and-conquer. not like that’s working anyway >_
#40 Jon Wells- Read your posts early AM while watching Wimbledon and they have been eating at me since then. The joking around maybe the atmosphere of Bay Area (all the mediceneal cannibas).
The bigger concern is the fact Bavasi has to ask permission to trade Shiggy. Makes one wonder exactly what the GM may do. Certainly Shiggy is not an even remotly necessary part of puzzle to creating a winning team.
Wonder how much this inhibts Bavasi in negotiating with other teams?
Wait a minute? The BBWA have given Jeter a gold glove? What is up with those bums? Make him give it back. Jeter’s a nice shortstop, but not for his defense.